StockNews.com Lowers ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) to Hold

StockNews.com downgraded shares of ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning.

ePlus Stock Up 3.4 %

PLUS opened at $98.30 on Wednesday. ePlus has a 12 month low of $53.53 and a 12 month high of $102.32. The company has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a PE ratio of 22.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The company has a 50 day moving average of $92.02 and a 200 day moving average of $82.29.

ePlus (NASDAQ:PLUS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The software maker reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.05 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $544.54 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $555.23 million. ePlus had a return on equity of 12.32% and a net margin of 4.98%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that ePlus will post 4.67 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other ePlus news, CFO Elaine D. Marion sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.19, for a total value of $460,950.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 64,442 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,940,907.98. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of ePlus

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of ePlus by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 15,418 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,231,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC raised its position in shares of ePlus by 134.6% during the 4th quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC now owns 8,269 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $660,000 after buying an additional 4,744 shares in the last quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of ePlus by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC now owns 9,188 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $734,000 after acquiring an additional 724 shares during the last quarter. Gobi Capital LLC purchased a new position in ePlus in the fourth quarter worth $49,190,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in ePlus by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,403,588 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $191,902,000 after acquiring an additional 27,582 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.80% of the company’s stock.

ePlus Company Profile

ePlus inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides information technology (IT) solutions that enable organizations to optimize their IT environment and supply chain processes in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Technology and Financing. The Technology segment offers hardware, perpetual and subscription software, maintenance, software assurance, and internally provided and outsourced services; managed services or infrastructure and cloud; and enhanced maintenance support, service desk, storage-as-a-service, cloud hosted and managed, and managed security services; and professional, staff augmentation, cloud consulting, consulting, and security services.